Thursday, February 1, 2018

Huskies Women's Indoor Track And Field To Compete At Youngstown State This Weekend

(Photo courtesy of Bloomsburg University Sports Information)

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The Bloomsburg University women's indoor track and field team will head to Youngstown State University this weekend to take part in the Youngstown State Mid-Major Invitational at the Watson and Tressel Training Site. On Friday, the field events begin at 4:00 p.m. while running events will get underway one hour later. On Saturday, multis and field events start at 10:00 a.m. with running events set for 11:00 a.m.

LAST TIME OUTBloomsburg competed in the 20th annual Bison Open last weekend which was hosted by Bucknell University.

On day one, the Huskies had three Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) qualifiers - two of whom were new qualifiers for the conference meet next month.

Freshman Alaina Pearson (Coal Township, Pa./Shamokin Area)posted her first collegiate qualifying mark when she qualified for the PSAC Championships in the pole vault last Friday night. She finished in a tie for fourth place overall with a high mark of 3.25 meters. Meanwhile, junior Kirsten O'Malley (Montoursville, Pa./Montoursville Area) competed in the 200-meter dash for the first time this indoor season and qualified for the conference meet with a time of 26.25 to finish sixth overall. Senior Carli Dedics(Drums, Pa./Hazleton Area), who qualified for the 200-meter dash earlier in the season, got under the standard again with a time of 26.76 for a 15th-place finish.

Also competing in the 200-meter dash on Friday were Kathleen Stevenson (Lansdale, Pa./North Penn), Jessica Brenfleck(Lansdale, Pa./North Penn), Sarah Gottschalk (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township), Autumn Kaminski (Mountain Top, Pa./Holy Redeemer), and Molly Hanna (Newton, N.J./Kittatinny Regional). Stevenson posted a time of 26.97 to finish in 21st overall while Brenfleck (27.73; 38th) and Gottschalk (27.77; 40th) also finished in the top 40 during the event. Kaminski posted a time of 28.64 while Hanna crossed the finish line in 30.69. Finally, in the 60-meter hurdles, both Amanda Aulenbach (Fleetwood, Pa./Oley Valley) and Kaminski narrowly missed qualifying for the finals in the event during their preliminary runs. Aulenbach finished 10th overall with a time of 9.76 while Kaminski was 12th with a mark of 9.98. The top eight during prelims competed in the finals. Hanna was 26th with a time of 10.60.

The Huskies added seven PSAC qualifiers last Saturday during the final day at the Bison Open. O'Malley had the highlight of the day as she won the long jump, convincingly, with a mark of 5.46 meters. O'Malley currently holds the second-best mark in the PSAC - 17th-best in the country - with her season-best mark of 5.71 meters at Houghton last month. She would later team up with Gottschalk, Autumn Avery (Hughesville, Pa./Hughesville), and Dedics for a fourth-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay with a time of 4:06.67.

Also competing in the long jump was Stevenson who finished ninth with a mark of 4.99 meters.

In the high jump, Amanda Simone (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan) had another PSAC-qualifying mark as she tied for third in the event with a mark of 1.59 meters. Chelsea Vaughn () was right behind, finishing in a tie for sixth with a mark of 1.54 meters. Hannah Masenheimer (New Tripoli, Pa./Northwestern Lehigh)later qualified for the conference meet in the weight throw with a distance of 13.00 meters. She was the top Bloomsburg finisher in the event as Rachael Sullivan (Gettysburg, Pa./Gettysburg)placed 18th (12.61 meters) and Dana Sheply (Maple Shade, N.J./Maple Shade) was 32nd (9.83 meters).

Pearson posted her second qualifying mark of the weekend as she took eighth in the triple jump with a mark of 10.56 meters. Her jump is the 16th-best mark in the conference this season.

On the track, Dedics took seventh in the 60-meter dash, qualifying for the event finals with a time of 8.05 seconds in the morning, and then finishing with a time of 8.10 in the finals. The final PSAC qualifiers came in the mile as both Hannah Boudreau(Hampstead, Md./North Carroll) and Madison Mimnaugh (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./Pittston Area) got under the standard for the conference meet. Boudreau finished second with a time of 5:17.79 while Mimnaugh was sixth, clocking in at 5:25.19. Boudreau's time is the eighth-best mark in the PSAC this season while Mimnaugh's is 12th. Boudreau also took fifth in the 1000-meter run on Saturday, finishing with a time of 3:19.53.

Two others posted top ten finishes last Saturday - Avery was fifth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:27.02 while Gottschalk was fourth in the 500-meter run after crossing the finish line in 1:23.04.

UP NEXTBloomsburg will head back to Bucknell University on Friday, February 9, to compete in the Bucknell Tune-Up.